Currently, manufactures manage power consumption and thermal issues in multicore devices by throttling the processing clock frequency of the multiple processor cores. Throttling the processing clock frequency of multiple processor cores of the multicore devices can help manage power consumption and thermal issues by reducing the rate of work accomplished by the multicore processors. However, this technique focuses on managing these issues at the expense of performance.
Mobile devices are increasingly incorporating multicore processors to handle the demands of the system and application software run concurrently on the mobile devices. Mobile devices are limited by having restricted power budgets that deplete quicker as more power is consumed by the mobile device to achieve higher performance levels, or maintain performance levels while handling greater software processing demands. While the software processing demands are increasing, users expect to maintain a certain level of performance on their mobile devices in terms of processing speed and battery life. Maintaining the user expected level of performance on a mobile device creates a dilemma of whether to sacrifice performance for longevity, or sacrifice longevity for performance, all while managing the thermal issues of the multicore processors.